Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Bryce for her opening presentation. She spoke a great deal about the regeneration PPPs.

I will refer to the Scribblestown scheme in Finglas which is to start before Christmas. As far as I am aware, it is 100% social housing. During the years the reputation of PPPs has not been great in terms of delivery and how they have been operated. I am trying to figure out how this one will be much better than previous PPPs. On some of them the sod has been turned about six times. I find it frustrating that it takes so long. The pulling together of public and private has been a major problem. I am told by management of Dublin City Council that the Scribblestown scheme should start before Christmas, but I suspect it will probably be in the new year.

Many of the PPPs are managed by voluntary housing bodies such as Oaklee Housing and Choice Housing. I have always been a great believer in local authorities building more. It is a much more straightforward mechanism in terms of delivery for them to have their own companies build or to employ private firms to build for them. They could deliver a lot more.

That brings me to what is planned for Coultry in Ballymun. It is planned to provide 400 units there in what is called a cost rental scheme. From my conversations with Dublin City Council, it is talking about the cost being €1,000 a month or thereabouts. We know that in the general area of Ballymun it would probably be €1,500 or €1,600. I am not sure about the value in terms of cost rental on this site because the land is being given over, but various figures for land prices have been given, including €33,000 and €50,000. I much prefer to see local authorities building social and affordable housing, rather than going down the road of PPPs. I am not asking the delegates for an answer because I do not expect them to give me one.

I have always wondered why apartments are so expensive compared to houses. I have never quite got my head around it. A number of years ago I believed it was much cheaper to build apartments. Why have they been a lot more expensive in the past year or two? I am still puzzled by it. Surely it is much cheaper to build 100 units in a block than it is to build 20, 30 or 40 houses or whatever the equivalent number is. I wish someone could explain it to me because it has never sunk in.

Is Sisk the main builder? Will it complete all of the PPPs or is it a mixture of builders?